{"id":554,"date":"2010-09-20T12:55:29","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T16:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=554"},"modified":"2013-06-26T11:25:19","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T15:25:19","slug":"reading-the-orbits-rightly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=554","title":{"rendered":"Reading the Orbits Rightly"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do you think of when you hear the word orbit<\/em><\/span><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course you know that our moon has one.\u00a0 And you know that the earth, along with the other planets of our solar system, follow their own orbits around the sun.\u00a0 Each of those planets has their own moon(s) that trace an orbit around them.\u00a0 And you\u2019re aware that all the other planets and their moons do similarly.\u00a0 These are stellar orbits.\u00a0 They occur on a macro-scale.<\/p>\n

Some of you also think of the orbits taking place at a micro-scale.\u00a0 Right this instant there are electrons chasing an orbit around their proton in every cell of everything we know as reality.\u00a0 You and I can\u2019t see these orbits with our natural vision, but we now know that they exist\u2014indeed, have existed from the beginning\u2014and continue on in the reality of their orbits even when we are unaware of them.\u00a0 These are sub-atomic orbits.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But now we are being told by scientists that there are other orbits taking place on a super-macro scale.\u00a0 There is evidence to suggest that entire galaxies move together in orbits around a common center.\u00a0 It staggers the imagination!\u00a0 These are inter-galactic orbits.<\/p>\n

What do Jupiter, the electrons in the atoms of your eye and our solar system all share in common?\u00a0 Orbits.\u00a0 As vastly different as those orbits are, they are all alike in that they have a determined course they chart around nucleus.\u00a0 As greatly as they differ in their speed, span and splendor, each of these circle rhythmically and consistently around and around and around.<\/p>\n

Interesting.\u00a0 But what\u2019s the point?\u00a0 Simply this \u2013 Just as there are consistent, God-created movements at every level of physical creation, so there are divinely inspired, God-breathed movements at every level of Scripture<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 And because this is true, we need to read the Scriptures with an eye to all those levels of movement.<\/p>\n

Too often we train our eyes to expect and thus to see God\u2019s Word at only one level.\u00a0 Perhaps we have established the discipline of reading a chapter of the Bible each day.\u00a0 Wonderful!\u00a0 We may tend, then, to look for a particular verse that we feel has something to say to us.\u00a0 We have probably learned to look for the divinely inspired message at the level of the sentence.\u00a0 Or maybe we\u2019ve learned to think also about how sentences string together and add context and meaning to one another\u2014we\u2019re reading each paragraph for its meaning.\u00a0 Or perhaps even further we try to comprehend how all those paragraphs relate to one another and we find the message, not only of a sentence or a paragraph, but of a chapter (or sub-section) of a book of Scripture.<\/p>\n

Are you starting to see the different divinely-inspired levels of Scripture?\u00a0 But it goes both smaller and larger than that!\u00a0 First the larger scale \u2013 have you ever tried to see how the Lord has given movement and meaning in how the chapters (or sub-sections) of a whole book fit together to make up one message?\u00a0 Or how all the books of one particular author (like Paul or Peter) fit together and complement one another?\u00a0 Did this just happen?\u00a0 Or did God breathe out this level of meaning as well?\u00a0 Indeed, He did!\u00a0 Even consider what God is saying to us in the two testaments of the Bible\u2014Old and New.\u00a0 God did this as well.\u00a0 But think also of the more infinitesimal\u2014God breathed out every word of Scripture.\u00a0 So we need also to examine the parts of the sentence\u2014each and every word is there because of God\u2019s intention.\u00a0 Indeed, the very tense of the verbs and the number of the nouns carry meaning for us.<\/p>\n

Please understand \u2013 as we look at all these levels of Scripture we are looking only for what God Himself breathed into the text.\u00a0 We\u2019re not looking for creativity on our part, but at the revelation on God\u2019s part.\u00a0 We are only looking for what God actually put into the text of the Bible.\u00a0 Yet too often we miss a great deal of this because we\u2019ve trained ourselves to only look for God\u2019s message at one level.<\/p>\n

Here are some exercises for you.\u00a0 Use them to train yourself to \u201csee\u201d more faithfully what God is saying to us at every level of Scripture. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Words<\/strong> <\/span>\u2013 What does Galatians 3:16 teach us about the importance of each and every word of Scripture and its form?\u00a0 Why does the Apostle make the distinction in this verse?<\/p>\n

Chapters<\/strong> <\/span>\u2013 What does Isaiah\u2019s twice-repeated refrain (\u201cThere is no peace for the wicked,\u201d 48:22; 57:21) teach us about the message of the second half of Isaiah (chapters 40-66)?\u00a0 Did you notice that these two statements divide Isaiah 40-66 into three symmetrical divisions of nine chapters each?\u00a0 Why do you suppose that is?\u00a0 What is the unique message of each of those sections?\u00a0 How do those three fit together into one entire message for Isaiah 40-66?\u00a0 How then does that compare with the message of the first half of Isaiah (1-39)?<\/p>\n

Books<\/strong> <\/span>\u2013 Watchman Nee, in his classic exposition of Ephesians, reduced the entire message of that letter to three words: Sit, Walk, Stand<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Can you find from the text of Ephesians why this is a faithful representation of Paul\u2019s intent?\u00a0 Here are a few clues: 1:20; 2:6; 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15; 6:11, 13, 14.<\/p>\n

These are just for starters.\u00a0 As you read and study God\u2019s Word, ask the Author Himself to open the eyes of your heart to see what He has revealed at every level of Scripture and to hear what He says with a view to obedience.\u00a0 Remember, the point of God\u2019s Word is not to give us trinkets of information for the satisfaction of our intellect.\u00a0 No, He spoke to us in written form that we might obey Him, be conformed to His image and give our lives to the fulfillment of His great purpose\u2014brining glory to Himself in every arena of created reality!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you think of when you hear the word orbit? Of course you know that our moon has one.\u00a0 And you know that the earth, along with the other planets of our solar system, follow their own orbits around the sun.\u00a0 Each of those planets has their own moon(s) that trace an orbit around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hermenutics","post-preview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-8W","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1595,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions\/1595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}